1899 Cleveland Spiders season
| 1899 Cleveland Spiders | |
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| Owner(s) | Frank Robison |
| Manager(s) | Lave Cross, Joe Quinn |
| < Previous season | |
The 1899 Cleveland Spiders season took place in American baseball. It was their 13th season in the major leagues, their 11th season in the National League and their last season in existence.
In 1899, the owners of the Spiders, the Robison brothers, Frank and Stanley, bought the St. Louis Browns baseball club from Chris von der Ahe, renaming it the Perfectos. However, they continued to retain ownership of the Cleveland club, an obvious conflict of interest that was later outlawed.
Stanley Robison publicly announced his intention to run the Spiders "as a sideshow", and fans apparently took him at his word. Through the first 16 home games, Cleveland's total attendance was 3,179, an average of 199 people per game. Due to lackluster ticket sales, other NL teams refused to travel to Cleveland's League Park, as their cut of the ticket revenue didn't cover their travel and hotel expenses. As a result, the Spiders only played 26 more home games for the rest of the season, including only eight after July 1. In so doing, they set a number of negative records, including one, 101 road losses, that is unbreakable under MLB's current schedule. Sportswriters of the day began referring to the team as the "Exiles" and "Wanderers." Their final record for the season was 20–134 for a winning percentage of .130, the worst in baseball history.
The Robisons decided that a good team in St. Louis would draw more fans, so they transferred most of the Cleveland stars, including future Hall of Famers Cy Young, Jesse Burkett and Bobby Wallace, as well as manager Patsy Tebeau, to St. Louis. Most of the players Cleveland received were non-entities. Jack Clements (known to history as one of MLB's few left-handed throwing catchers) and Joe Quinn were at the end of successful careers, and player-manager Lave Cross was traded back to St. Louis after the Spiders got off to an 8–30 start.
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